The Great War 1914-1918

Category Archives: America

The following are men who embarked from Folkestone between the 17th and 21st April (Inclusive) 1917. Except for one, possibly two returned home. In the list is at least one American., and a soldier with an unusual middle name.

17th April 1917

Private 219859 William Ward, Army Service Corps.

Private Wilfred James White, Dorsetshire Regiment. Posted to the 5th Battalion. Reposted to the 1st Battalion he joins them in the Field on the 5th May. Wounded in action on the 21st June. He is transferred back to England suffering from Shell Shock in August. In January 1918 he is transferred to the Labour Corps with a new number, 510022.

Private 2567 William James Yates, Hampshire Regiment. He embarked from Folkestone at the end of July 1916 when he was serving with the South Staffordshire Regiment. That was the second time he had embarked, the first was from Southampton. He arrives at 9 Infantry Base Depot on the 30th. Transferred to the 4th (Reserve) Battalion Hampshire Regiment. Posted to the 14th Battalion Hampshire Regiment and allocated a new number, 46841. He returned to England on a hospital ship suffering from influenza on the 30th December 1916. He is now embarking once more for the Western Front. He will return to England with Myalgia on the 21st November, and return to France, probably from Folkestone in April 1918. (his Army Form B103 note his arrival at Etaples but not his port of embarkation.)
18th April 1917

Private 29895 David Peter Abbot, 9th Cameron Highlanders.

Private 241358 Vivian Agondous Fisher, Borders Regiment. He arrives at 25 Infantry Base Depot on the 19th. Posted to the 7th Battalion on the 7th May. Accidentally wounded in the left hand on the 16th May. Found guilty by a Field General Courts Martial of Neglect prejudicial of good order and military discipline, the wound being Self Inflicted. Vivian lost the ring and middle fingers of his left hand. He is sentenced to 90 days Field Punishment No1. Admitted to a casualty clearing station with Inflamed Connective Tissue fingers on the 4th December he is transferred back to the United Kingdom via the Hospital Ship St Denis on the 4th December. Transferred to the Royal Defence Corps in April 1918. and discharged from the Army on the 20th June 1918. His application for a pension was rejected.

Private James West. 40th Labour Company. Joined 9 Infantry Base Depot on the same day. Joined Unit in the field on the 26th April, (Possibly 1st Labour Company Lincolnshire Regiment, as this company was redesignated 40th Labour Company on transference to the Labour Corps 14th May 1917.) Transferred to Labour Corps 14t May 1917.
19th April 1917

Private 28000 James Herbert Gray, 6th Battalion York and Lancashire Regiment. He arrived at 34 Infantry Base Depot on the 20th. Posted to the 10th Battalion he joins them in the field on the 8th May.

Private 3/23839 Allen Westbrook, 3rd Battalion York and Lancashire Regiment. He arrived at 34 Infantry Base Depot on the 20th. Posted to the 10th Battalion he joins them in the field on the 8th May.

Private 1025 James Thomas Donnelly, 1st Reinforcements/41st Battalion, Australian Imperial Force, Ex-11th Training Battalion Larkhill. He is Taken on Strength of 41st Battalion, ex 3rd Australian Division Base Camp on the 10th May. James was born in Colorado, USA, and enlisted at Brisbane Queensland, Australia, in February 1916.
20th April 1917

Private David Adams 4th Battalion Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. This is not the first time Private Adams had crossed to France but the first and only date on record of him crossing from Folkestone.
Home Service from the 3rd September 1914 to the 27th July 1915.
3rd September 1914. Enlisted 3rd Battalion Royal Scots.
26th September 1914. Posted 14th Battalion Royal Scots.
21st July 1915. Posted 13th Battalion Royal Scots.
France from the 28th July 1915 to the 30th September 1915.
28th July 1915. France -not known from where he sailed.
29th September 1915. Gun Shot Wound left thigh.
30th September 1915. Returns to UK.
Home Service from the 1st October 1915 to the 1st January 1916.
1st October 1915. Depot Royal Scots.
30th November 1915. Posted to 14th Royal Scots.
1st January 1916. 13th Battalion Royal Scots.
France from the 2nd January 1916 to the 10th April 1917.
2nd January 1916. France, not known from where he sailed.

In March 1916 David was in the Hulluch Sector when he was blown up by a High Explosive Shell, he is knocked unconscious and suffers from concussion. On a Medical Report dated 24th April 1918 from Glenlomond War Hospital it is stated that this is when his Neurasthenia started.

Home Service from the 11th April 1916 to the 18th April 1917.
11th April 1916 Posted for record purposes to the Royal Scots Depot, David is recovering in the Duchess of Connaught’s Canadian Red Cross Hospital, Taplow. He stays at the hospital until the 22nd May 1916.

7th August 1916. Posted to 14th Battalion Royal Scots.
1st September 1916 . Transferred to 3rd Reserve Battalion.
20th October 1916. Posted to the Larnarkshire Yeomanry.
2nd December 1916. 10th (Works) Battalion Royal Scots Fusiliers.
31st December 1916. Transferred to the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders.
It is known from his Pension Records that David was a patient at the 2nd Scottish General Hospital. Craigleith, Edinburgh from the 9th January until the 24th February 1917.
19th April 1917. Posted to the 10th Battalion Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders.
France from the 20th April 1917 to the 14th July 1917. (Pension Medical Record states 19th April.)
20th April 1917. Leaves Folkestone for France.
21st April 1917. Joined 19 Infantry Base Depot.
Home service from 15th July 1917 until the 10th May 1918.
15th July 1917 Taken on Strength Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders Base Depot Sterling.
It is known from his Pension Records that David was a patient at Merryflats War Hospital, Glasgow from the 15th July until the 15th August 1917.
27th August 1917. Posted to 4th Battalion Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders.
3rd November 1917. Posted to 250 Reserve Company Royal Defence Corps.
From his pensions we know that David was at Glenlomond War Hospital, Kinross in April 1918.
10th May 1918 Discharged as, “No Longer Physically Fit for War Service”.
15th May 1918 Died.

It is not know where David Adams is buried. Hopefully he managed to return to the family home at 12th Nile Street, Greenock.
As well as the 1914-1915 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal David received the Silver War Badge (No. 389532). He is commemorated on Broomhill War Memorial.

Private David Gray 80th Training Reserve Battalion. He joined 34 Infantry Base Depot Etaples on the 21st. Transferred to the East Kent Regiment and posted to the 8th Battalion East Kent’s. His new Regimental Number is G/13978. Wounded in action on the 10th August.

Private 868 William Kelb, Australian Imperial Force. Originally in 40th Battalion he had spent four months in Hospital due to illness. William arrived at 3r Australian Division Base Depot the same day. He rejoins his battalion the 40th Battalion on the 23rd April and, is Killed in Action on the 17th July 1917, age 43. William Kelb the son of Joseph and Amelia Kelb; husband of Ada May Kelb, of Sidmouth, Tasmania, is buried at Kandahar Farm Cemetery. The inscription on his gravestone reads:

Getting back into this since the circus has left town. I did say I could edit this down to 350 pages. I’m now on page 508. These gentlemen embarked at Folkestone on the 8th July 1918.

8th July 1918

Private 3628 Thomas Crichton Australian Imperial Force. Ex 14th Training Battalion, he is part of the 10th Reinforcements 57th Battalion Australian Imperial Force.1

Private 3629 Norman Crumpler Frederick. Born in Key West Florida USA he became a farmer and lived with or near his parents in Victoria Australia. He enlisted on the 2nd December 1917. Now he is part of the 10th Reinforcements/57th Battalion, Australian Imperial Force. Taken on Strength by 57th Battalion on the 24th. Wounded in Action on the 2nd September 1918. Six months later on the 3rd March 1919 Norman is detached from the 57th Battalion for duty with the Australian Graves Registration Unit.2

Private 200998 Stephen Finnemore, Machine Gun Corps. Date not clear might have embarked on the 9th. Stephen had previously embarked from Folkestone possibly on the 25th February 1917, again the date is not clear. Joined 31 Battalion Machine Gun Corps in the field on the 26th July. Originally enlisted into the North Staffordshire Regiment in March 1915. At some point he is renumbered, his new number being 153499. He returns to England on the Princess Victoria from Dunkirk on the 15th December 1918. Believed to have been demobilised at Shorncliffe on the 12th January 1919.3

Private 16839 Sidney Herbert Wallis, Coldstream Guards. Not the first time Sidney had been to France, he was wounded in September 1917. Sidney joins the Guards Division Base Depot at Harfluer on the 9th. Posted to the 4th Battalion he joins them in the field on the 18th.4

Private 22504 Edwin Waterhouse 1st Battalion Coldstream Guards. He joins the Guards Division’s Base Depot on the 13th and his unit in the Field on the 29th. Wounded in action on the 21st September.5

Although not a military port in 1914 there are still a number of notable embarkations. In August Flora Sandes embarked as a nurse. I doubt if she intended to fight in the war. It is probably a good job we can not see into the future.

In August 1915

Private 17424 Thomas Kenny, 13th Battalion Durham Light Infantry. Thomas Kenny was a collier and lived at 23 Queen St, Castleford. He attested on the 25th February 1915 and crossed to France from Folkestone with the 13th Battalion Durham Light Infantry. He is awarded the Victoria Cross for an action on the 4th November 1915, when the battalion war diary records the battalion was in the trenches near Erquinghem. The Citation reads as follows:

“No. 17424 Private Thomas Kenny, 13th (Service) Battalion, The Durham Light Infantry. For most conspicuous bravery and devotion to duty on the night of 4th November, 1915, near La Houssoie. When on patrol in a thick fog with Lieutenant Brown, 13th Battalion, Durham Light Infantry, some Germans, who were lying out in a ditch in front of their parapet, opened fire and shot Lieutenant Brown through both thighs. Private Kenny, although heavily and repeatedly fired upon, crawled about for more than an hour with his wounded officer on his back, trying to find his way through the fog to our trenches. He refused more than once to go on alone, although told by Lieutenant Brown to do so. At last, when utterly exhausted, he came to a ditch which he recognised, placed Lieutenant Brown in it, and went to look for help. He found an officer and a few men of his battalion at a listening post, and after guiding them back, with their assistance Lieutenant Brown was brought in, although the Germans again opened heavy fire with rifles and machine-guns, and threw bombs at 30 yards distance. Private Kenny’s pluck, endurance and devotion to duty were beyond praise.”1

Thomas may have transited through Folkestone to France on one more occasion as he was presented with the VC at Buckingham Palace by King George V. on the 4th March 1916.2 He is the first soldier from the Durham Light infantry to be awarded the Victoria Cross in the First World War.3 During 1917 he returned to the UK this time with a gunshot wound to the lower back. He returned home on the 30th October 1918 and was discharged from the army on the 26th September 1919. 4Thomas was also awarded the 1914-1915 Star, British War Medal and the Victory Medal.5 Thomas Kenny V.C. Died on 29th November 1948.

In August 1917

11th Engineers Regiment, (Railway),1 an American regiment raised from railway workers. They were sent over to France to help maintain the railways in Northern France. Sergeant Matthew Calderwood and Private William Branigan were wounded when the Unit came under shell fire on the 5th September 1917. They were the first United States Army casualties on the Western Front.

And from August 1918

Private 35741 Sam Whiteley, King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry. He arrives at “F” Base Depot on the 4th. At first he is posted to 9th Battalion then on the 9th August to the 2/4th Battalion. Sam had first arrived in France on the 15th November 1916. Then suffering from Trench Feet he had been transferred home in March 1917. Embarking for France this time from Folkestone on the 7th August 1917 and was wounded in action in October 1917, returning to England on or about the 12th October 1917. This is Sam returning to France for the third time

It is actually to remind me I am on page 750 of my notes. All four are little known. The notes on each short.

From October 1915.

Private 111020 Kennedy Gideon Francis Baldwin 6th Canadian Mounted Rifles. Born in Bathurst, New Brunswick, Canada. His parents are recorded by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission as John E. and Annie W. Baldwin, of 11, Tetlow St., Boston, Mass., U.S.A. Although his attestation papers give an address in New Brunswick for his mother. Known to have been at Shorncliffe, he was temporarily promoted to Acting Lance Corporal while there. He reverted to Private before going to France. Transferred to 5th Canadian Mounted Rifles on the 2nd January 1916. Promoted to Corporal in the field on the 17th November 1915. He is killed in action on the 2nd June 1916. Corporal 111020 Kennedy Gideon Francis Baldwin is buried in Bedford House Cemetery, Belgium.

1916

Private 27964 Thomas Smith, The Royal Scots. Returning to France after being Shell Shocked. He had first embarked from Folkestone on the 7th June. This time he joins 20th Infantry Base Depot on the 12th posted to the 13th Battalion.. On the 27th October he is posted from 20th Infantry Base to the 16th Battalion and joins the Battalion in the Field on the 1st November. Reported missing on the 28th April 1917 and a Prisoner of War from the same day on the 4th September 1917. Thomas, age 22, the son of Mr. and Mrs. James Smith, of 20, Marketgate, Arbroath, Forfarshire dies on the 11th December 1918 while a Prisoner of War at Lumburg in Germany. He is buried at Berlin South-Western Cemetery.

1917

Private 108436 Narcissus Walker, Machine Gun Corps. Narcissus attested on the 10th December 1915 in the King’s Royal Rifles and was posted to the reserves the next day. It was not until the 1st May 1917 that he was Mobilised and posted to the Depot at Winchester. On the 2nd August 1917 he is transferred to the Machine Gun Corps. Embarking for France at Folkestone on the 8th October he joins the Machine Gun Corps Base Depot at Camiers the next day. Posted to 237 Company Machine Gun Corps he joins them in the Field on the 11th October. Narcissus is buried by a shell explosion on the 7 November 1917 and injures his head. Evacuated via the casualty evacuation train back to England he is discharged as physically unfit for war service in June 1918

1918.

Private 33481 Edward Nolan, Grenadier Guards. Edward Nolan married Mary Jane Bradburn on the 7th March 1914. They were to have three children before the end of hostilities, John born 4th February 1914, Frances born 23rd August 1915, and, Walter born 29th June 1917. Before Nolan enlisted on the 10th December 1915 he was a Police Constable. At first he was posted to the Army reserves and not mobilised until the 25th April 1918. Nolan was posted to the 3rd Battalion Grenadier Guards on the 29th October 1918 the same day he embarked from Folkestone to Boulogne. Nolan at first joined the Guards Division Base Depot on the 31st October 1918. The next day he was with the 3rd Battalion Grenadier Guards at the front. He returned to the UK with the Battalion from Dunkirk on the 4th March 1919. On the 12th April 1919 Nolan was demobilised and transferred to the reserves. He was discharged from the reserves 31st March 1920. Edward Nolan was awarded the British War Medal and the Victory Medal.

Captain John Macgregor V.C., M.C and Bar. D.C.M. 2nd Canadian Mounted Rifles. Born in Cawdor, in Nairnshire Scotland, John Macgregor would have made a worthy thane. His mother still lived at Newlands of Murchang, Cawdor. Prior to the war John had emigrated to Canada where he worked as a carpenter.1 Macgregor was awarded the D.C.M. For an action on the 8th April 1917 during the preliminaries to the Battle of Vimy. 2 The citation for his Distinguished Conduct Medal (awarded when John was a Sergeant) reads:

“116031 Sjt. J. MacGregor, Mounted Rifles. For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. He single-handed captured an enemy machine gun and shot the crew, thereby undoubtedly saving his company from many casualties.”3
(Supplement 30204 to The London Gazette 24 July 1917 page 7663)

John was awarded his Military cross for two reconnaissance missions on the 28th December 1917, and for his part in a trench raid on the 12th January 1918. 4 The Citation for his Military Cross reads:

“Lt. John Macgregor, D.C.M., Mtd. Rif. For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. Whilst he was assembling his men prior to a raid, the enemy bombed the trench. He, however, changing his point of attack, led his men over the wire into the enemy’s trench, and successfully dealt with the garrison of the trench and three concrete dug-outs, himself capturing one prisoner. He then withdrew his party and his prisoner successfully to our trenches. Before the raid he, together with a serjeant, had made several skilful and daring reconnaissances along the enemy wire, which materially assisted in the success of the enterprise.”
(Supplement 30845 to The London Gazette, 13 August 1918, page 9569.)

The citation for the award of the Victoria Cross:

T./Capt. John MacGregor, M.C., D.C.M., 2nd C.M.R. Bn., 1st Central Ontario Regiment. For most conspicuous bravery, leadership and self-sacrificing devotion to duty near Cambrai from 29th September to 3rd October 1918. He led his company under intense fire, and when the advance was checked by machine guns, although wounded, pushed on and located the enemy guns. He then ran forward in broad daylight, in face of heavy fire from all directions, and. with rifle and bayonet, single-handed, put the enemy crews out of action, killing four and taking eight prisoners. His prompt action saved many casualties and enabled the advance to continue. After reorganising his command under heavy fire he rendered most useful support to neighbouring troops. When the enemy were showing stubborn resistance, he went along the line regardless of danger, organised the platoons, took command of the leading waves, and continued the advance. Later, after a personal daylight reconnaissance under heavy fire, he established his company in Neuville St. Remy, thereby greatly assisting the advance into Tilloy. Throughout the operations Capt. MacGregor displayed magnificent bravery and heroic leadership.
(The Edinburgh Gazette .10 January 1919, No. 13384 page 200) 5

The citation for the bar to his Military Cross reads:

For conspicuous gallantry and leadership from 5th to 8th November, 1918, at Quievrain and Quievrechain. Through his initiative the bridges over the Honnelle River were secured. His personal reconnaissances and the information he derived from them were of great use to his commanding officer. His prompt action in seizing the crossings over the river did much -towards the final rout of the enemy.
(Supplement 31680 to the London Gazette, 9 December 1919, page15312)

John Macgregor died in British Columbia on the 9th June 1952.

From September 1916

Private 13790 John Weir, who had attested on the 9th September 1914. He first embarked from Folkestone on the 10th July with his battalion, the 10th (Service) Battalion, Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) A K2 Battalion, which was part of 46th Brigade 15th Division. They had arrived in Folkestone at 10:45 pm. and embarked on the S.S. Victoria. Within days of his arrival at the front he forfeits 3 days pay, then on the 15th. In August 1915 he was awarded 6 days Field Punishment No.2. On the 25th September 1915 he was wounded, a gun shot wound to the back. On the 27th he was sent back to England. John is now returning to France. He is transferred to the 11th Battalion Royal Irish Rifles on the 20th October with a new Regimental Number, 40271, and joins them in the field on the 30th. Awarded 7 days Field Punishment No.2 on the 21st November he is posted to the 8th Battalion on the 2nd December. Illness/sickness sees John in and out of the Field Ambulance until finally he is transferred back to England on the 10th May 1917. He is discharged on the 15th March 1918 as no longer physically fit for war service. His Pension Record is stamped “Deceased” but no date is given. There is also no indication of an award of a pension either although his length of qualifying service for a pension is given.

September 1917

Private 208995 Arthur Crabb, Labour Corps. Arthur Crabb was called up a month before his 39th Birthday the last week of June 1917. Posted to France he embarked from Folkestone on the 8th September. For five days he was at the Labour Corps Base Depot before being posted to 744 Employment Company, Scottish Command Labour Centre. It is thought that this company was involved with battlefield salvage. Five months later on the 19th February 1918, he is admitted to 16 Field Ambulance with Epilepsy. Admitted to 45 Casualty Clearing Station the same day and No.1 (Australian?) General Hospital Rouen on the 22nd. He is also discharged to duty on the same day by the Medical Board at Rouen. . Less than three weeks later on the 10th March he is a admitted to 49 Casualty Clearing Station with Epilepsy. This time he is taken by Ambulance Transport No. 6 to 5 General Hospital Rouen and back to Southampton on the Hospital Ship Carisbrooke Castle 16th March 1918. His Medical Report on the 26th April records that Crabb had epileptic fits all his life. The record also states “he is very deaf and dense, with weak general intelligent.”. Makes one wonder why he was enlisted in the first place. On the 1st May 1918 Crabb is recommended for discharge. He is discharged on 17th June, no longer fit for war work. He is given a weekly allowance of just over 8 shillings (40 pence) for 30 weeks.1 Arthur Crabb is awarded the British War Medal, Victory Medal, and the Silver War Badge.

…and one who embarked in September 1918.

Gunner 28312 William Penniston Gallup, Australian Imperial Force. Born in Pueblo, Colorado, USA, and became a naturalized Australian on the 2nd June 1914. first crossed to France from Folkestone on the 6th June 1917, then he arrived at the Australian General Base Depot on the 9th June 1917. He was Taken on Strength of 6th (Army) Brigade, Australian Field Artillery on the 21st June and posted to 17th Battery. Wounded in action on the 22nd March 1918, he was sent back to England. He is now returning, and rejoins 6th Brigade, ex-wounded, on the 28th September. William survives the war and is known to have been still alive in the early 1940s.

The connection is July, and all four embarked from Folkestone during the First World War. They came from, Connecticut USA, Folkestone England, Grantown-on-Spey Scotland, and not known, but in Scotland.

Private 5792 George Frost, Australian Imperial Force, 18th Reinforcements 15th Battalion. Crossed from Folkestone on the SS Arundel. George was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, USA in 1876. A sailor he enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force on the 15th November 1915 at the Rifle Range, Queensland. Tried by Field General Courts Martial for Desertion on the 6th October 1917. He went absent while on active service on the 21st June 1917 until the 17th July 1917 and going AWOL while under arrest 17th August until the 20th August 1917. Found Not Guilty of Desertion, but Guilty of being Absent Without Leave. He is sentenced to 9 months Imprisonment with Hard Labour in the Military Prison at Rouen. George returns to duty on the remission of the remainder of his sentence on the 12th June 1918 and returns to the 15th Battalion on the 17th June 1918. Reported absent on the 21st July, rearrested 16th August, absent 28th August, traced 15th September, absent 30th September, and again reported absent 15th October. On the 14th January 1919 he is sentenced to 15 months Hard Labour. Some of the sentence is served at No.10 Military Prison Dunkirk. On the 23rd July 1919 he is transferred to prison in Oxford. He embarks at Calais on the “Maid of Orleans” and disembarks at Folkestone, under escort. The remainder of his sentence is remitted from the date of his departure for Australia, 22nd September 1919

Second Lieutenant Jack Fellows Lambert 9th (Service) Battalion The Rifle Brigade (Prince Consort’s Own)the eldest son of Ernest and May Lambert, 23 Terlingham Gardens, Folkestone is burned to death by liquid fire shortly after 3:15 on the 30th July 1915, at Hooge. This was the first use of liquid fire by the Germans and Jack was one of the first British soldiers killed by Liquid fire. His body could not be identified and he was listed as missing until March 1916. Jack has no known grave and is commemorated on the Menin Gate. Before the war Jack managed a coconut estate in the Malay States.

Two who embarked in July are;

On the 8th July 1915.

Duncan Mackintosh

Duncan Mackintosh was born in Grantown-on-Spey on the 19th November 1883. He was the eldest surviving son of of Peter and Margaret Mackintosh of Rosemont, Grantown-on-Spey. Duncan enlisted in Inverness during October 1914 and joined the 7th Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders in Glasgow. He arrived in France with the battalion on the 8th July 1915. Duncan took part in the Battle of Loos in 1915 where on the 25th September 1915 he was wounded in the shoulder. After his recovery he went on to serve in Mesopotamia, now modern day Iraq. He was reported in the Strathspey Herald, as being dangerously ill, on the 1st June 1916. During the Battle of San-I-Yat a bullet entered his left lung and exited through his spine. After a tiring journey by boat down the river Tigres, he was transported by Hospital Ship to Bombay in India. Here he lost his left lung. Eventually Duncan returned to Scotland and married Mary Robertson. They lived at 5 Kings Street Coatbridge. Duncan worked as a Master Watchmaker. Eleven years after being shot Duncan Begg Mackintosh died on the 21st June 1927. His death certificate records that he died from “Gunshot Wounds” On the Family Memorial in Inverallan burial ground, Duncan is commemorated as “Dying from the effects of wounds received in 1917.” He was awarded the 1915 Star, British War Medal, the Victory Medal, and the Silver War Badge.

The connection between the four people who embarked from Folkestone in the First World War is “June”, as is the connection with the Company.

The first man, embarked on the last day of May 1915. The poem was published in June.

Charles Hamilton Sorley crossed with the 7th Battalion the Suffolk Regiment. He would be killed in action on the 13th October 1915.

Cast away regret and rue,
Think what you are marching to,
Little give, great pass.
Jesus Christ and Barabbas
Were found the same day.
This died, that, and went his way
So sing with joyful breath.
For why you are going to death.
Teeming earth will surely store
all the gladness that you pour.
(From, Over the Hills and Vales Along, by Charles Hamilton Sorley, June 1915)

Robert Graves in “Goodbye To All That”, describes Charles Sorley as, “one of the three poets of importance killed during the war. (the other two were Isaac Rosenberg and Wilfred Owen.) Charles did mention the Folkestone-Boulogne crossing. Not in a poem but in prose,
“I hate the growing tendency to think that every man drops overboard his individuality between Folkestone and Boulogne, and becomes on landing either ‘Tommy’ with a character like a nice big fighting pet bear and an incurable yearning and whining for mouth-organs and cheap cigarettes: or the Young Officer with a face like a hero and a silly habit of giggling in the face of death.”

From the 28th June 1915

Mary Dexter. Mary wrote to her mother on her arrival at the Ambulance Jeanne d’ Arc in Calais on the June 28, 1915, 4 P.M.
“Dearest Little Mother:- Here I am, safely over-after a rough crossing. There were only a dozen soldiers onboard-British and Belgian-returning to the Front-and I was the only woman. The fuss to get off from Folkestone,-armed with a passport and forty permits and passes for going through Belgium lines!”

From the 29th June 1916

Private 414 John William Wheatman, K Company, 2nd R.B.S.A.S. Scottish (2nd Reserve Battalion South African Scottish) embarked on the “Golden Eagle”. He joined 9 Infantry Base Depot on the 30th. Promoted to unpaid Lance Corporal in the field on the 13th September. Wounded in action on the 12th October. He returned to France from Southampton on the 13th May 1917 rejoining his unit a month later. Wounded in action in August 1917 he is transferred back to England in September. Discharged at Bordon in the United Kingdom on the 20th May 1918. John from Hammersmith in London, had enlisted at Potchefstroom, South Africa on the 16th August 1915 in the 4th South African Infantry. On his attestation papers he gives his wife’s name and address as, Margaret Wheatman, PO New Primrose Germiston. A city in the East Rand, South Africa. His Award Sheet disablement pension, records his wife’s maiden name as “Clara Elizabeth Kitchen”. John had served for 4 and a half years in the East Lancashire Regiment and for a year in the South African Police. On his discharge papers alongside Campaigns, Medals and Decorations he has written, German South West Africa 1914-15, and France 1916 and 1917. His Military History Sheet records his service as;
Home 9-8-15 to 24-9-15
En route 25-9-15 to 12-10-15
England 13-10-15 to 28-6-16
France 29-6-16 to 20-10-16
England 21-10-16 to 13-5-17
France 14-5-17 to 25-9-17
England 26-9-17 to 20-5-18

4th June 1917

Corporal 7227 Alexander James Dean ex-4th Training Battalion Now 24th Reinforcements for 15th Battalion, Australian Imperial Force. Born in Advie, Scotland, Alexander had settled in Australia where he was married with 5 children. He decided to enlist on the 3rd August 1916. Twice wounded in July 1917, the second time self inflicted. Alexander is discharged from the Australian Imperial Force because of defective vision on the 22nd December 1917.

2nd June 1918

Company B, 311th US Infantry. The 311th had crossed from the USA on the “Nestor”. After arriving at Liverpool they entrained for Folkestone arriving at 2 a.m. on the 1st June. They history of Company B, 311 Infantry records they spent the night in an Embarkation Camp at Folkestone in “a large empty stone house in a row of similar ones” Sixty men from the 311th had left for France from Folkestone on the 1st June.